You're a Catch!
by Lady Tol
Summary: Hugo is not always the most confident person, but with a little coaching from his closest cousin will he able to ask out the girl of his dreams? Oneshot


Hugo Weasley tried to breathe normally. In and out. In and out. It was the way his mother had taught him to breathe, when he got nervous all the time as a young child. It worked 99% of the time. This happened to be the 1% of the time that it didn't.

He was standing outside the Great Hall and kept looking in both directions. The redhead was waiting for Alice Longbottom. The cute, intelligent, somewhat shy but quite funny when you got to know her, incomparable Alice Longbottom. Every one of his close friends and family knew that he fancied her. Probably some of her friends realized it too. Since the beginning of this term, the Fifth Year had barely been able to form a coherent sentence in front of the brunette. But it was finally time, he promised his best friend and cousin Lily Potter. He was going to ask her to go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend, she was going to say yes, and they would live happily ever after (Said the confident, Gryffindor side of his brain. The other side, which wondered how he didn't end up being sent home his first day at Hogwarts because he wasn't good enough, was thinking more depressing things).

And there she was, along with a few of the other Gryffindor Fifth Years, walking and laughing and about to enter the Great Hall for dinner. And he opened his mouth, to call out to her-

And nothing. He couldn't speak. His knees were weak and he felt sick to his stomach. And then they were all in the Great Hall, out of reach and he slid down the wall and sat there with his head in his hands.

A few minutes later- or maybe an hour later, Hugo certainly wasn't sure- he heard her.

"You're pathetic, you know that?" Lily Potter said, tapping her foot.

"You sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself," Hugo said. He looked up at the Slytherin (he usually forgave her this grievous error, but now was not one of those times) and saw her hands on her hips and a disappointed look on her face.

"Come on, let's go." Lily held out her hand, but Hugo just stared before putting his head back in his hands.

"No, I'm just going to stay here and die of embarrassment."

"I'm skipping dinner for you. You're going to get up, and you're going to follow me, and then you'll thank me later." Hugo sighed and grabbed her hand, pulling himself up to his considerable height.

"Where are we going?" He said as Lily led him up a staircase and toward a rarely used corridor of Hogwarts Castle. "I thought we were supposed to see Hagrid tonight."

"Change of plans." He tried to pry more information out of her, but that's all she said. Finally, she opened the door to an empty classroom and pointed at the desk in the front. "Sit."

He obliged meekly, not particularly interested in fighting with his cousin at the moment. She sat down on the professor's desk at the front, and faced him.

"Welcome to the 'Lily Potter School of Asking a Girl (Specifically Alice Longbottom) to Go To Hogsmeade With You (Specifically Hugo Weasley).'" She spread her arms triumphantly and looked at him.

"Bit of a mouthful, if you ask me."

"Well I didn't." Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you want my help or not?" Hugo looked at her and thought about it for a moment. He was _extremely _desperate at this point.

"Yes," he sighed dejectedly and dropped his head to the desk with a rather loud thud.

"That's what I thought." She jumped off the desk and went right up in his face, which he lifted to look at her. "You're a genuinely good guy, you know that right? And no, I'm not just saying that," she said, before he could object. "You're really nice, you're somewhat intelligent, you're fun to be around. And though I feel slightly uncomfortable saying this, you're moderately attractive." She smiled. "You are, in layman's terms, a 'catch'. So the first lesson is don't get down on yourself.

"But she's pretty, and smart, and she's older than me and she's got loads of friends and I bet she already has a date-"

"First lesson," she practically shouted. "Do not get down on yourself! Repeat after me, 'I am a catch.'" But Hugo only mumbled incoherently. "What was that?"

"I am a catch," Hugo grumbled.

"Like you mean it."

"I am a catch." At least this time he sounded like he didn't mind another person hearing it. Lily sighed. This might take a while.

* * *

"Lesson number twenty seven-"

"Bloody hell," Hugo exclaimed and stood up, after two hours. "Do you ever run out of lesson?"

"Depends." Lily smirked. "Are you going to ask her to go to Hogsmeade with you tomorrow?"

"Yes, as long as it makes you shut up."

"Good, because I ran out of good ideas at around thirteen." She went over to his side of the desk and hugged him tightly. "You've got this. But if you walk into Herbology tomorrow morning without having asked her, I'll murder you in your sleep." He laughed and they walked out of the classroom. They parted ways, but before Hugo was out of earshot Lily turned around and shouted.

"Remember lesson number one!"

"I'm a catch!" He shouted back.

And when Lily saw the cheese-eating grin on Hugo's face the net morning, those two long hours were almost worth it. It didn't stop her from mercilessly making fun of him and trying to bring to Professor Longbottom's attention that Hugo had asked his daughter out on a date though.

* * *

**A/N**: I've been having random thoughts for one-shots these past few days (I'm out of school and I don't start work until Thursday, so I've been really bored haha). Anyway, hope you liked my story and if you did, please review! I really appreciate every one!


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